Abstract
Development assistance from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is conceptualized as flowing through an assemblage that includes heterogeneous subjects and objects and that has coevolved with USAID's contracting regime. Key assemblage elements are contractors (firms, nongovernmental organizations, individuals), contracts, and procurements, and key flows include capital, knowledge, and people. The focus of this article is the rise over the past forty years of a lucrative development contracting industry in the United States, through a relational examination of USAID contractors and other key elements in the assemblage. This article traces the contemporary U.S. development assistance contracting assemblage and its geographies. This entails identifying and mapping the assemblage's component elements, its networks and flows, with the overall aim being to take steps toward building a critical geographical understanding of development capital.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1030-1051 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | Annals of the Association of American Geographers |
| Volume | 104 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 2014 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:• FHI was begun in 1971 as a University of North Carolina spin-off research group funded by a grant from USAID. • The combined FHI and AED firm was rebranded as FHI360. • Based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. • It is one of the largest U.S. nonprofits, with US$475 million in revenue in 2011, almost three quarters from USAID (FHI360 2011). • FHI360 is now USAID’s largest nonprofit contractor (Mukherjee 2011). • Dr. Albert Siemens, CEO, was paid more than US$450,000 in 2011 (Guidestar.org 2013).
Funding
• FHI was begun in 1971 as a University of North Carolina spin-off research group funded by a grant from USAID. • The combined FHI and AED firm was rebranded as FHI360. • Based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. • It is one of the largest U.S. nonprofits, with US$475 million in revenue in 2011, almost three quarters from USAID (FHI360 2011). • FHI360 is now USAID’s largest nonprofit contractor (Mukherjee 2011). • Dr. Albert Siemens, CEO, was paid more than US$450,000 in 2011 (Guidestar.org 2013).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| United States Agency for International Development | |
| University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University |
Keywords
- USAID
- assemblage
- contractors
- development
- foreign aid
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Geography, Planning and Development
- Earth-Surface Processes